Roberto
C. Tobar: Ecology and Art
(This is my picture)
-Main Idea-
As a very integral
part of human life, nature has been regarded with good intentions. Nature’s not
always harmonious, however. It has been
abused. Nature can be chaotic as well,
in forms such as tornadoes, hurricanes, exploding volcanoes, snowstorms, etc,
all of which could jeopardize human existence. When nature is peaceful, harmony
exists, and it represents innocence. Artistic
representations of harmony and innocence both seem to be forms of social
protest against exploitation. However,
art can also spark exploitation by commodifying representations of art and
using them for economical purposes. The exploitation comes from artists or
photographers who create images of art and then sell them to the public and
even publish them on the Internet, as well as people who happen to buy or
download the images.
Thesis 1: Like harmony, innocence is a way to protest organized cruelty against nature.
Even
though the economic “progress” has brought many changes to his village, the
naturalist poet John Clare still remembers much of the land from his youth and
talks about it in his poems. He idealizes his childhood to intensify the
perception that creates one’s love for their environment, and will argue about
innocence to protest cruelty. As a
“peasant poet”, Clare would watch as the weak community of creatures continues
to depend on the strength of the ecosystem. His conception of a “language
that is ever green” helped him refuse anybody’s advice for him to fix
his poetry, because he admired his views so much and wasn’t willing to change
them. (McKusick 234, 242) “The individual organism is not regarded as valuable for its economic
or aesthetic qualities considered in isolation, but for its participation in a
larger community of living things” (McKusick 237).
As an environmental advocate, Clare is virtually
unprecedented in the extent of his insight into the complex relation between
ecological devastation and social injustice. (McKusick quoted, 239)
This forest can show that animals that are adapting to
the environment inhabit nature.
Thesis 2: Art seems to create an economic
turmoil, as after the exploitations succeed, many people try to purchase
nature’s images to support the exploitations for their own personal use, rather
than try to live in nature itself.
Art
seems to play a large role in the crisis of ecology. One should be more mindful of local
environments and communities so they can help an “ecologically sustainable,
self-reliant society” form. A successful
ecological society should assume the characteristics of a “permaculture”, that
is, a system focusing on the harmonious “interrelationship” between humans,
plants, animals and Mother Nature. Once
a human gets the desire to control the environment, he is taking the first step
towards destroying nature.
“Hyperecological benefits” seem to be limited to residents in
Conventionally, consumption is assumed to be the
function of humanity’s technological relationship to the environment. People supposedly manipulate the environment
to create objects and processed materials that will satisfy innate needs for
material goods and services. Today, many
believe that capitalist corporations are the most appropriate tool for
producing these materials. (Luke quoted, 73)
This very image can show us that nature is never safe
from exploitation, and anyone can go anywhere they want just to start their
sale of nature’s images.
Thesis 3: People
can enjoy artistic representations of nature as they hang on their living room
wall, but not want to support an ecological preservation project to protect
nature.
Concluding Statements
The main points are that ecology can be looked at and
used in different ways. It can influence
poets such as John Clare to tell about their views of the world, or, in the
wrong hands, can make a human who is hungry to control the environment tear
apart the very Earth. Either way,
ecology is a major part of life and must not be disregarded by the living
things around it, or else the earth and all of its inhabitants could suffer,
especially this one:
Works Cited:
Luke,
Timothy W. “Art and the Environmental
Crisis.” Art Journal, Summer 1992.
McKusick, James C. “‘A language that is ever green’: The
Ecological Vision of John Clare.”
1st Picture from http://www.serc.si.edu/forest_ecology/forest_ecology_index.htm
2nd Picture courtesy of http://kirchoff.ee.suffolk.edu/biology/ffscourses.html
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